Metals and alloys such as copper, zinc, brass, bronze, and pewter are appreciated for their mechanical and aesthetic qualities and are used extensively in structural or decorative applications in buildings as well as art objects. However, because of the cost, limited malleability and weight of metallic substances, they are often replaced nowadays by plastics and other synthetic substances. Indeed, plastics are usually less expensive than metal, much lighter, and can be easily molded. This substitution of plastic for metals is particularly evident in the automobile manufacturing and building industries. Plastics, however, do not have the advantageous characteristics of metals such as resistance to fire and aesthetic appeal.
Art objects such as sculptures made of brass, bronze or pewter are more prized than similar articles made of plaster or clay. However, brass, bronze or pewter sculptures must be first created in a malleable material such as clay. The clay original is then used to make a mold for casting metallic copies of the original work of art. It would be advantageous to have a malleable medium that can be hardened to the consistency and mechanical as well as aesthetic qualities of metals and alloys. Such a medium could be used for coating structures made of malleable material such as clays and plastics or to make an article that can be easily sculptured or texturized before hardening to a metal-like consistency.
For centuries mariners have tried to prevent marine life from attaching to boat and ship hulls and thereby reducing hull efficiency and durability. This attachment of marine plants and animals is called "fouling". The most effective anti-fouling coatings depend, to a certain extent, on copper-based paints, and on certain poisonous substances that can affect the environment.
The protection of metallic structures in an underwater environment presents another problem. Ship hulls made of steel are subject to electrochemical corrosion in addition to biological fouling. When copper or other noble metals are placed in electrical contact with steel in the presence of water, the galvanic potential difference between the two metals causes the steel to be preferentially attacked by electrochemical corrosion because the Copper is more cathodic than steel. The prior art solution usually involved a complex layered approach which electricallyinsulates the copper from the steel as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,692 Porter.
The manufacturing of electrical and electronic devices ranging from giant power machinery to minuscule microcircuit chips requires the use of electrically non-conductive materials to form enclosures, armature supports, connectors, substrates, potting compounds and other parts and components. The most commonly used insulating material such as plastic, silica and resins are poor conductors and dissipators of heat, and tend instead to concentrate the heat generated by electrical currents circulating through the device's circuitry into the device itself. Moreover, these materials cannot be securely bonded to conductive elements of electrical circuits that are usually made of, copper, aluminum, silver, gold or other alloys thereof. These conductive metals and alloys have relatively high coefficients of thermal expansion compared to the above-cited insulating materials. Thus, while the non-conductive materials contribute to the concentration of heat around current-conducting metallic components, they do not expand or contract at the same rate and to the same extent as those components. It would be advantageous to have non-electrically conductive materials that exhibit coefficients of thermal conductivity approaching those of copper, silver, aluminum and other metals commonly used in the fabrication of current-carrying components, and coefficients of thermal expansion that are commensurate with those of the material used to form the active segments of electrical and electronic circuits.